Pakistan minister says most of the heatwave victims were homeless

Karachi

Nearly two-thirds of the victims of a killer heatwave that swept southern Pakistan last week were homeless people, a minister said today, as the death toll in Karachi reached over 1,200.

The city of 20 million inhabitants is a sprawling metropolis with few green areas and has scant facilities for coping with intensely hot weather.

Those living on the city's streets have little access to shelter or safe drinking water, making them particularly vulnerable to the scorching temperatures.

"About 60 to 65 per cent of the heatstroke victims were beggars and heroin addicts, street people," Jam Mehtab Dahar, the provincial health minister told AFP.

Zafar Ejaz, a senior health official, said the death toll as of today stood at 1,229 across the city's hospitals.

After peaking at around 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on the weekend of June 20-21, the heat subsided to the mid-30s later in the week as the city's customary cooling sea breeze returned.

This year's heatwave has also coincided with the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, during which millions of devout Pakistanis abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset.